Within the scope of their Cooperation Agreement, the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazilian National Council of Research) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) are pleased to announce a joint call for German-Brazilian research projects in the areas of agricultural sciences, forestry and veterinary medicine (topics of the DFG review board 2.31(interner Link)). Interdisciplinary projects involving the social sciences and humanities can also be submitted, provided they have an agricultural, forestry or veterinary focus and are therefore within the remit of DFG review board 2.31.

This initiative aims to bring together relevant and competitive researchers from Germany and from Brazil to design and carry out jointly organised research projects of outstanding scientific quality.

Proposals for joint German-Brazilian projects have to be submitted in parallel by the researchers in Germany and in Brazil to their respective funding organisation according to the organisations’ respective format and regulations.

Key information for eligible researchers:

• Deadline for submission of proposals at CNPq and the DFG: 15 December 2025.
• Researchers may apply for a funding period of up to three years.
• The DFG and CNPq use their standard programmes for proposals within this initiative.
  • DFG: Research Grants Programme (“Sachbeihilfe”). Regarding eligibility, please refer to DFG form 50.01(interner Link).
  • CNPq: www.gov.br/cnpq/pt-br(externer Link) (“open for submission”).
• Principal investigators (PIs) based in Germany submit their documents to the DFG, PIs based in Brazil to the CNPq.
• All documents must be written in English.
• Funding of the joint research projects is contingent upon positive assessment by both funding organisations. Unilateral funding of only one part of a project is not possible.

Eligibility

The researchers on each side must be eligible to apply to their respective funding agency. The eligibility for the applicants in Germany to submit a proposal follows the regulations for the DFG Research Grants Programme (DFG form 50.01(interner Link)). For members of non-university institutions with permanent positions, this includes the duty to cooperate (“Kooperationspflicht”) with a partner at a German university (DFG form 55.01(interner Link)). Applicants in Brazil must meet the eligibility requirements of the CNPq.

Allowable Costs

All requested cost items must be in accordance with the respective national administrative regulations. At the DFG, only costs for the German share of the projects are eligible. At CNPq, only costs for the Brazilian share of the projects are eligible.

Project Requirements

Please note that the documents submitted to the DFG and the CNPq must not differ with regard to the scientific content of the proposal or with regard to the applicants involved. Applicants should demonstrate how bringing together researchers based in Germany and in Brazil will add value and advance their research. It is expected that each partner will substantially contribute to the common project. The teams of applicants should ensure that there is a plan for effective delivery and coordination of research among the partners. There are no separate funds available for these joint initiatives; proposals must succeed on the strengths of their intellectual and scientific merits and teams in comparison with all other proposals.

Proposal Preparation and Submission for Applicants from Germany

Please submit your proposal to the DFG by 15 December 2025. Proposals are to be submitted solely via the elan portal in order to ensure proposal-related data is recorded and documents are securely transmitted. If this is the first time you are submitting a proposal to the DFG, please note that you must register in the elan portal before you can submit your proposal. You must do so by 8 December 2025. You will normally receive confirmation of your registration by the next working day. Only one Germany-based applicant should upload the proposal to elan. Please note that this person will have to enter address details and funds for the other Germany-based applicants. After logging in into the elan system, please use the link “Proposal for a Research Grant” in the Proposal Forms column (Proposal Submission – New Project – Individual Grants Programme – Proposal for a Research Grant). Please select “BRAZIL CNPq 2025 – Joint Research Grants” to tag your proposal for this specific call.

Please note that only Germany-based applicants should be entered as “applicants”. Partners from Brazil should be entered as “cooperation partners”. Employees whose positions are requested for funding should not be assigned to this category.

In the elan system, applicants are required to include the budget figures only for funds requested from the DFG. The proposal document itself should contain the budget figures for both the Germany-based and the Brazil-based components of the project. All budget items must conform to the national rules applicable to each applicant. In addition, an academic CV for each of the applicants needs to be provided. Please note that the CVs of the Germany-based applicants should follow the DFG form Curriculum Vitae (see DFG form 53.200(interner Link)). There are no rules regarding the format of the CVs for the Brazilian PIs. Please upload the CVs of all PIs combined in one PDF document.

Proposal Preparation and Submission for Applicants from Brazil

Applicants from Brazil are requested to conform to all the requirements listed in the CNPq call for proposals that is published on the CNPq website - Chamadas Públicas(externer Link) and to submit their documents via the Carlos Chagas Platform by 15 December 2025.

Review, Evaluation and Decision Process

Both agencies will organise an external written peer review of the proposals submitted. Afterwards, a joint evaluation panel will assess and rank each proposal on the basis of the written reviews. The final funding decision will be made by the respective committees of the funding agencies.

Timeline and Notification of Results

•    Call opening: 25 August 2025
•    Call closure: 15 December 2025
•    Assessment of proposals expected until October 2026
•    Communication of results: from December 2026 onwards 
•    Approximate beginning of funding: from December 2026/January 2027 onwards

In the case of CNPq, the president of the CNPq will issue a preliminary decision informing about which proposals were jointly approved, which have not been approved on merit and which have been rejected. The list of these proposals will be published on the CNPq website(externer Link) and, by extract, in the Official Gazette of the Union, according to the schedule established in the call.

Ethics Votes

If an ethics vote is required for the German or the Brazilian part of the project, it must be submitted together with the proposal to the DFG. However, in exceptional cases, an ethics vote by the responsible local German ethics committee can be submitted no later than three months after proposal submission. Otherwise, the funding organisations may stop processing the proposal. Please note that the submission of an ethics vote of the local German ethics committee is also necessary if only the project part abroad is affected, as it is a cooperation project.

Equity and Diversity

The DFG strongly welcomes proposals from researchers of all genders and sexual identities, from different ethnic, cultural, religious, ideological or social backgrounds, from different career stages, types of universities and research institutions, and with disabilities or chronic illness.

Good Research Practice

According to a resolution of the DFG General Assembly, DFG funding may only be awarded to research institutions that have implemented the guidelines laid down in the Code of Conduct for Safeguarding Good Research Practice(externer Link) in their own regulations. The management of your institution is responsible for implementing the guidelines in a legally binding manner. In order to avoid delays in the disbursement of funding, please verify implementation within your institution in good time. For information regarding the implementation, please refer to the Research Integrity Portal(externer Link). If you have any questions on this subject, please contact the Research Integrity team(externer Link) at the DFG Head Office.

Further Information

General information for German principal investigators on research grants may be found here(interner Link).

Guidelines on the Duty to Cooperate: DFG form 55.01(interner Link)

To submit a proposal to the DFG, please follow the Guidelines for the Research Grants Programme (DFG form 50.01(interner Link)) and the “Proposal Preparation Instructions – Project Proposals” (DFG form 54.01(interner Link)). Please use the template for the proposal(interner Link) and the template for the CV(s)(interner Link) from Germany.

Information on the elan portal: 
•    elan portal(interner Link)
•    elan flyer(Download) 
•    elan FAQ(interner Link) 
Information on arriving at a decision in individual grants programmes can be found here(interner Link).

Contact Person at the DFG Head Office in Bonn: 

Dr. Dietrich Halm, phone +49 228 885-2347, dietrich.halm@dfg.de(externer Link)

Contact Person at the DFG Office Latin America: 

Dr. Christina Peters, phone +49 228 885-4550, christina.peters@dfg.de(externer Link)

Contact information at CNPq in Brazil: atendimento@cnpq.br(externer Link)

Privacy Policy

We, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), take the protection of your personal data and its confidential treatment extremely seriously. Therefore, please refer to the DFG’s Privacy Policy(interner Link). If you intend to transmit personal data of third parties, please make sure to do so only if the necessary legitimation under data protection law exist. Before transmitting data of third parties to the DFG, please forward the DFG’s Data Protection Notice to the individuals affected (data subjects). If there is a legitimate interest not to inform individuals beforehand (e.g. for reasons of secrecy or in case of a nomination or candidate proposal), these individuals should be informed no later than at the time of publication.